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Now that the Georgia Legislature has gone home until next year, we can get the good silver back out.

Just kidding. We hocked that long ago. The economy, you know.

But seriously, the good news is that the unfinished business spares us for another year from bad legislation. The bad news is that everything unfinished this year can come back up next year.

That includes gun legislation. In that regard, the best we can hope is that there’s not another mass shooting or other high-profile event between now and then to cause lawmakers to stomp the panic button. Again.

There’s one thing I learned from asking people for suggestions of questions to ask when interviewing politicians:

Don’t ask people for suggestions of questions to ask when interviewing politicians.

This past Monday I sat down for a little while with 12th District U.S. Rep. John Barrow, and on Tuesday interviewed 10th District Rep. Paul Broun. Beforehand, I asked readers to let me know if they had any questions they wanted answered.

I got a few thoughtful responses. Most of them, though, reminded me of the old WGAC AM radio trivia game, “Stump the Chumps.”

Like many people, I’ve seen my share of stories about kids getting in trouble and squandering opportunities because of youthful stupidity.

Thus, I was somewhat inclined to not make a big deal of the 18 members of the Greenbrier High School boys varsity soccer team being kicked off the team and suspended from school for drinking and smoking “spice” on a school trip.

After all, they certainly aren’t the first kids to do stupid things. Heck, just a year ago we were playing this song with members of the Lakeside baseball team.

While it might be nice to pretend we don’t have to even think about elections until next year, the reality of our times is that we don’t have that luxury.

John Stone sure doesn’t. Starting this summer, he’ll have a full-time job: Running for Congress.

You might remember Stone. If you’re an old-timer, you’ll recall his voice from radio news in Augusta. More recently, he might be familiar from the 2008 congressional race that he lost to Democrat John Barrow.

There are three possible reasons why Silda Dean wrote a letter saying she lied when she claimed to have been molested by Scott Dean, the former county commissioner and Harlem mayor who adopted the girl and four of her siblings from Guatemala:

• She was lying then, but now she’s telling the truth.

• She was telling the truth then, but she’s lying now because of pressure or persuasion.

• She was telling the truth then, but she’s lying now because she’s appointed herself as Dean’s personal pardons and paroles board and has decided a year in prison is enough punishment.

The death of Charlie Norwood to lung disease six years ago was like blue-car syndrome for me.

Blue-car syndrome is the phenomena that, if you buy a blue car, it suddenly seems like everyone is driving a blue car.

It was like that after Norwood. When I heard he had pulmonary fibrosis – and after I was gently chewed out in his office for suggesting he retire to take care of his health – I took greater notice of lung diseases.

Did you ever have a great idea, but are frustrated that other people’s less-worthy ideas get greater attention?

Yeah, it happens to me all the time, too. In this case, it’s happened with the HOPE Scholarship. As I mentioned a couple of years ago, I’ve got a great idea for improving the program and saving it money. Yet the ideas we’re instead seeing advanced are those that will only cost more money.

The other ideas aren’t bad; it’s just that my idea is better. Don’t take my word for it – you be the judge.